One of three Luffa plants I have around the homestead.
This year I added three Luffa gourd plants to the Golden D Homestead.
According to Gardening Know How Luffa (Luffa aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula), also known as loofah, vegetable sponge or dishcloth gourds, are grown mainly for their useful fibrous tissue skeleton. Young fruits can be eaten as as squash, used in stews or even used in place of cucumbers.
I first realized that Luffas are the same as the expensive loofah sponges you would buy in the store for showering and bathing; the ones that gently, yet scrub your skin. I had been researching some new homemade soap recipes and came across a recipe calling for adding Luffa gourds to the molds and I was intrigued.
You mean you can grow Luffa?
Why yes you can! I was thrilled and went online to search where to buy the seeds. I was NOT going to pay the high price for a Luffa/Loofah in the store to cut down when I now knew I could grow it myself.
For the price of one six-inch loofah gourd (which would give me six Luffas to use in the soap recipes) on Etsy, I could buy 25 seeds from a seed catalog. GREAT SAVINGS
I can buy 25 seeds and plant them; with the hopes of each seed producing an average of three gourds. Plus I can save the seeds from one season to the next. WIN-WIN
Food Versus Bath Sponge
When To Harvest Luffa For Food- when the gourd is no larger than 4 inches (12cm) in length
When To Harvest Luffa For Sponge- when it is over six inches (15cm) in length
When harvesting the gourd for a sponge, the outer skin will start to deteriorate exposing the fibrous skeleton and seeds. You can easily shake out the seeds to save for future plantings and carefully remove any remaining outer skin; leaving you with the sponge.
Aside from using as a shower or bath body sponge for exfoliating and cleansing, you can also use in the kitchen as a scrubby when washing dishes and for scouring pots and pans.
To learn how to harvest and prepare Luffa for being used as a sponge, check out the Gardening Know How page to see what needs to be done. The link also explains how to germinate the seeds for a better harvest.
General Luffa Facts
- They can grow up to 15 feet in height
- Prefer to grow up a trellis of some kind or fencing for support
- Gourds grow approximately 8-12 inches in length
- Like to be in FULL sun for best results
- Remove first flowers (always male flowers) that emerge from the plant to promote better growth
The two Luffa gourds I have in the planter pots right now will be moved to the creek bed in the next week so that the roots can take better (producing a better harvest). I have the third Luffa already planted near the creek bed and with the hopes that the heat and humidity will subside over the next few days, I can get outside and do the other two transplants.
I plan on putting up some kind of pole or trellis for the gourd vines to latch onto and continue their upward growth. Not sure of the exact plan yet, but I'll be digging into my creativity to come up with something unique.
